


Downtime

by forthegreatergood



Series: Triple Threat [2]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Grief/Mourning, Oral Sex, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-14
Updated: 2014-04-14
Packaged: 2018-01-19 07:39:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1461181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/forthegreatergood/pseuds/forthegreatergood
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pepper and Rhodey take care of each other while Tony's missing in Afghanistan.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Downtime

**Author's Note:**

> All characters property of Marvel.
> 
> Not beta-read. Please post any noticed errors in the comments, and they'll get fixed.

James can’t quite make out the edges of what they’re doing here, but then, he can’t bring himself to care much, either. Pepper’s kicking off her heels and pushing him back to the bed, and he’s shrugging out of his jacket and kissing her, and it feels right in a way that not much has since the ambush.

It’s not that he hasn’t thought about it before now. Pepper’s a very pretty woman, even when she’s not trying to be, and he’s not blind. He’s fairly sure she’s thought about it, too, given how many times he’s caught her checking him out when she thinks he’s not looking. But there was always Tony, not so much in the way as in the middle. They were both hung up on him, and they’d both spent too much time watching the other trying to negotiate that briar patch. Now, with him gone, they’re the only two with this sort of hole in their lives. 

Stane’s lost enough people in his time that he seems almost grimly resigned to Tony not coming back; he’s all pragmatism and determination and putting one foot in front of the other. The Stark name will keep going, even if it’s just as a company. James’s superiors are cautiously optimistic about Stark Industries’ ability to keep churning out the latest and greatest without Tony acting as genius-in-residence. The only other person James can think of who really misses _Tony_ , misses the person, misses him like a limb...well, it’s not really a person at all. Him, Pepper, and Tony’s weirdly-human automated system. It rubs him raw when he thinks of this as Tony’s possible legacy.

Pepper climbing on top of him grounds him, and when he reaches up to grab her hips, it feels like he’s finally off the merry-go-round of search missions, conference calls, and pointed conversations with the brass. It feels like home. He can see an echo of the feeling in the way the lines around her eyes smooth out a little, the way her mouth softens, the way her shoulders lose some of their sharpness. For him, it’s frenetic, fruitless activity that’s wearing him thin. For her, it’s the enforced idleness, the helpless waiting. She grabs his tie and holds him still when she kisses him again, nudging his mouth open and sliding her tongue against his. She tastes like the coffee they’ve been drinking. He imagines he does, too. Maybe a shade sweeter; Pepper takes hers black.

He runs his hands over her back, and he’s torn between ignoring the weight she’s lost and how fragile she suddenly seems and the sharp spike in his desire to fix everything, to make it all right again. She pulls off her blouse and drops it on the floor, and he settles on ignoring it. She’s ignoring the bags under his eyes and way he can’t really relax in open spaces, after all. James can do the same for a little while. Maybe later they’ll talk properly. Right now, he unbuttons his shirt while she unknots his tie, and his fingers are on autopilot. She’s beautiful, and she’s running her hands over his chest with frank appreciation, and he doesn’t know why they couldn’t bring themselves to do this before. It seems like a lost opportunity, the chance to have something because they just wanted to, because it might be fun. Now it’s a relief and a respite and the natural outgrowth of finally being around someone else who gets it. He doesn’t have to explain that Tony was so much more than an asset to be finessed, and she doesn’t have to tell him that Tony was so much more than just a boss.

Pepper runs her fingers through his hair--what little of it there is--and chuckles. “Did you _just_ get it buzzed this morning?”

“Yesterday morning,” he admits. He’d thought it might help his chances of getting his transfer request accepted if he showed up looking like he had his shit together.

She hesitates over his fly, then moves to undo her bra instead, and he unbuttons his pants. They separate awkwardly to finish getting undressed, and he glances at her out of the corner of his eye only to find her doing the same. It breaks the sudden tension, and they’re back in each other’s arms before he can do much more than blink. They need each other, and they want each other, and all the ugliness fades into the background when he kisses her neck and her fingernails dig into his back.

James tries going down on her, settled between her thighs and stroking himself lightly to stay ready. She’s not having it, though, and he quickly finds himself under her with her knees against his shoulders and his cock in her mouth. He gives as good as he gets, or at least tries to. It turns out Pepper’s got a competitive streak as big as his, and when he taps her hip and tries to warn her he’s about to come, she _growls_ at him and sucks harder. It’s like she’s thrown down a gauntlet, and he buries his tongue in her and kneads her ass and she comes so hard she almost wrenches his neck. He doesn’t notice, though, because she puts half of it back into doing the same to him, and he whites out with her lips fastened to the base of his cock and her hand around his balls. 

The next thing he registers is Pepper slithering off him and wiping her mouth on the back of her arm. There’s definitely a triumphant look in her eye when she curls up next to him, but he’s too shattered to think much about it. For the first time in weeks, his mind feels quiet. He puts his arm around her and pulls her close, and then he’s rolling onto his side and hugging her to him. It surprises him to find that she’s suddenly crying--sobbing, really--and clinging to him with a strength that he wouldn’t have thought such slender arms could muster. It surprises him even more to find that he’s crying, too. Her hair is wet with his tears, and it sticks to his face when he buries his head in her shoulder. He’s shaking as he hugs her, and he’s grateful when she curls her leg around his hip and presses herself flush against him. He feels numb everywhere that isn’t touching her.

James is vaguely aware that he should be careful here. He might not be able to jam everything back in the bottle it’s crawling out of, and he’s still got a job to do. But this is everything he hasn’t been able to put into words and acknowledge since he lost sight of Tony in the melee and then couldn’t find him again. Given the way Pepper’s holding him as she falls apart, she’s got her own tide she can’t stem anymore, either. He doesn’t try to shush her, and she doesn’t try to soothe him. They just wrap around each other like they’re trying to meld and let that be enough. Neither one of them can make it not so, but they can make it so they’re not alone with it. They can make it so that they’re not the only one who hasn’t given up. They can make it so that somebody else _understands_. It’s both enough and not at the same time, and still, James feels a sense of calm steal over him. Pepper takes longer to subside, but when she does, she only relaxes her hold on him a few fractions of an inch.

“I miss him so much,” she finally confesses, her voice hoarse.

“I miss him, too,” he tells her. He hesitates before finishing the thought. “I don’t know what I’m going to do if I can’t find him.”

Her arms tighten around him at that, and he rubs her back.

“You will,” she says after a few more sniffles. “You’ll find him, and you’ll bring him back. It’s Tony.” She laughs, and it sounds like her heart is breaking. “He’s...he’s never on time for anything.”

He laughs, too, because there’s nothing else for it. It’s laugh or cry, and he’s done his share of crying today. They cling to each other and laugh like mad things for just a few more minutes.


End file.
